Republic did not renew the contracts of either Simon Elliott nor Asst. Head coach Benjamin Ziemer. https://www.sacrepublicfc.com/news_article/show/1062740 I guess you could say "bang" as in firing. Sorry about that.
Not surprising in the least. In the last half of the season he looked on the sideline like a passenger on a bus about to crash. Do not be surprised to see Mark Briggs (Academy director, former coach of Real Monarchs) named to the head spot.
Not surprised either. Every corner kick we took, those two looked like the Flight Ops Officer on the deck of the Nimitz. Waving arms, signaling. Properly prepared professional teams don’t need that. Add to that Neagle’s comment about how Elliott advised him this team was picked to “win the division.” Not even close, coach.
I thought that was in reference to Dunivant, but you might be right. Dunivant, there's another question. Interesting to see who will lead this coaching search - Gumpert, Dunivant (assuming he's not heading out the door) or someone else.
I went back and found that thread, and you are correct, it was regarding Dunivant. My bad, i was wrong......lately my memory has been about as good as the hard drive in my laptop......slow and insufficient space. I agree it will be interesting to see if Dunivant is kept on and who leads the coach selection process.
One could construe from Partain's comments that Simon didn't have much of a plan... The search for a new Republic FC Head Coach is on... and midfielder @hayden_partain shares what he wants to see with a new front man @SacRepublicFC @kcranews pic.twitter.com/kta98OouzF— Michelle Dapper (@KCRAdapper) November 7, 2019
I still wonder: Do they start building at least some of the MLS team in 2020 or wait completely until 2021? Thoughts?
My guess is that this year (2020) the organization's energy gets drained on the "backside" logistics of going to MLS. For example, expanding the youth league network (earthquakes affiliation with local youth clubs has already started pulling back), start talks to align with a League 1 team, searching for an MLS level training facility (or site), developing a scouting team for domestic and foreign players, hiring the additional staff to handle all of this......i think they are gonna have their hands full. Players? They will probably get the majority of MLS players through the expansion draft, have a couple of homegrowns, and maybe sign a DP just before they start. You can start scouting for that this year, but IMHO, there is no need to hurry to "lock-down" potential MLS level players until 2021. The benefit of the announcement, however, is that we are likely to be a target gig for players, and the next coach should be able to benefit from that in the 2020 season. Just one man's opinion....and an old one at that (the man, not the opinion, lol).
TBH, I think that's what Dunivant tried to do this season, but it did not work out well - primarily because the USL-C game is far different from the MLS game, and SRFC's lack of speed and athleticism blew up in its face several times. USL-C is a speed-and-power league, and MLS is far more movement and passing. When Shannon Gomez went down on July 27, SRFC was giving up ~~ 1 goal per match. After his injury, that went up to 1.33 goals per match. Not much of a difference, but with the table as bunched up as it was, that's a critical number. It's weird, though. I saw maybe three routinely MLS-calibre players on the field regularly for SRFC - Cohen, Enevoldsen, and (on a good day) Iwasa. Werner could possibly crack the XVIII on an expansion side, same with Bijev. Other than that? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯